Bears’ coaches open annual baseball skills camp

By Jordan Honeycutt, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 08:23 PM.

“A lot of people think there is some magic formula for a kid being great at the game, but there isn’t,” Smith said. “There are certain things at every position that have to be there. We try our best to help instill those things in kids while never losing the aspect of it always staying fun for them. That is most important, to have fun while learning.”

Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at Jordan.Honeycutt@newbernsj.com Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29.

New Bern High School baseball coach Gary Smith has a busy and exciting week around the end of June each year.

That's when he and his assistant coaches operate the New Bern baseball camp.

This year, the camp had its second largest turnout in its 14-year existence with 72 campers.

In that cluster of kids, there are boys and girls ranging from six years old through high school.

“Our main goal with our camp is to first and foremost make sure that they all have fun playing the game,” Smith said. “Over the years, through a lot of trial and error, we have found some methods that work and some that don’t.”

This season, Smith has three of his former players helping him in David and Matt Towarnicky and Sam Sanders.

Mike Ellsworth, and Pamlico head coach Mike Twichell Jr., are assisting as well, in addition to the usual Bears' coaching staff.

“It’s great to have the guys that played for me back to help. Most of the better players to have come through New Bern and the area have attended our camp,” Smith said. “These young kids can see that these college guys were where they are now at one point.”

Smith said with all of the extra help from other coaches and former players, they had a 7-to-1 camper to coach ratio.

He also admitted it can be challenging to find things that work for kids going through drills together that are of different skill levels.

“I went to a North Carolina camp a few years back and saw their coach, Mike Fox, putting his college kids through stuff very similar to what we do here,” Smith said. “In the end, it is baseball and the kids that work on the game and want to be better, usually get better.”

With the six and seven-year olds, Smith was orchestrating a pop-up game, teaching them how to bunt and splitting them up for a friendly, but intense scrimmage.

Sanders was working mainly with the eight-to-10-year olds, while the others focused on junior high and high school kids.

In a baseball age where camps and leagues sprout like corn in a Nebraska field, Smith said he hasn’t changed things much.

“A lot of people think there is some magic formula for a kid being great at the game, but there isn’t,” Smith said. “There are certain things at every position that have to be there. We try our best to help instill those things in kids while never losing the aspect of it always staying fun for them. That is most important, to have fun while learning.”

Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at Jordan.Honeycutt@newbernsj.com Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29.